GPO Access and Thomas

(excerpted from LLRX)"The Government Domain: GPO Access and THOMAS for Legislative Research
Peggy Garvin compares and contrasts the features and content of these two resources, to assist researchers in determining which to use for specific tasks."

Al's Morning Meeting

Al's Morning Meeting from thePoynter Institute is (excerpt):"a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis." Although intended for journalists, much of the information will be of interest to IRCs - including today's issue on Fourth of July resources. You can also subscribe to Al's Morning Meeting via email

USG RSS feeds

Firstgov's U.S. Government RSS Library provides an overview and links to USG feeds on a variety of subjects, including data and statistics, military, education and international relations.

Open CRS

Here's a new site devoted to collecting and making available CRS reports. It seems to have missed a couple of important collections - U.S. Embassy Rome and the Foreign Press Center - but perhaps those will be added as well. From the "about" information: "A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology through the cooperation of several organizations and collectors of CRS Reports, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports."

Latest report from Pew Global Attitudes Project

(headline from latest report of the Pew Global Attitudes Project):U.S. Image Up Slightly, But Still Negative: American Character Gets Mixed Reviews
The latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, released June 23, was conducted among nearly 17,000 people in the United States and 15 other countries from April 20-May 31. From the introduction: "Anti-Americanism in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which surged as a result of the U.S. war in Iraq, shows modest signs of abating. But the United States remains broadly disliked in most countries surveyed, and the opinion of the American people is not as positive as it once was. The magnitude of America's image problem is such that even popular U.S. policies have done little to repair it. President George W. Bush's calls for greater democracy in the Middle East and U.S. aid for tsunami victims in Asia have been well-received in many countries, but only in Indonesia, India and Russia has there been significant improvement in overall opinions of the U.S.

Attitudes toward the U.S. remain quite negative in the Muslim world, though hostility toward America has eased in some countries. Many Muslims see the U.S. supporting democracy in their countries, and many of those who are optimists about the prospects for democracy in the Middle East give at least some credit to U.S. policies. But progress for America's image in these countries is measured in small steps; solid majorities in all five predominantly Muslim countries surveyed still express unfavorable views of the United States."

David Rumsey map collection

David Rumsey's map collection contains more than 150,000 maps and is one of the world's largest. Around 1998 Rumsey decided stopoed adding to the collection and turned his efforts to digitizing and making the collection available to others. The result is at www.davidrumsey.com - an amazing resource for history buffs and researchers. There is a short article about the collection in the July Issue of Technology Review.

UN Pulse

"UN Pulseis a service of the UN Dag Hammarskjöld library, and appears to be regularly updated. Also offers and RSS feed. From the "about" info: UN Pulse alerts you to selected just-released UN online information, major reports, publications and documents. Created and maintained by a team of reference librarians at the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York, UN Pulse is updated as new information is published and received."

Full-text book searching

Greg Notess's article Searching Books Between the Coversin the May/June issue of Online magazine review the state of full-text book searching, and includes a comparison of Amazon's Search Inside the Book and Google Print.

Lugar Report on WMD Threats and Responses

Following excerpted from Richard Lugar's website:
Lugar Releases New Report on WMD Threats and Responses
"During the next ten years the world faces a 29 percent chance of a nuclear attack and the prospect of four new nations being added to the nuclear weapons club, according to a new survey of non-proliferation and national security experts compiled by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar. Over the same period, the experts rated the risks of a major chemical or biological attack as both greater than 30 percent, while the prospects of a dirty bomb attack were pegged at 40 percent.

The unique survey of 85 top international scholars, policy makers, diplomats, and technicians probed the attitudes of experts on both proliferation threats and international responses. The Lugar Survey found that 79 percent believed that their own country was not spending enough money on non-proliferation objectives. None of the experts surveyed believed that their country was spending too much on these goals."
http://lugar.senate.gov/reports/NPSurvey.pdf

Guide to Internet Research for Lawyers

Glenn Bacal's impressive Guide to Internet Research for Lawyers is useful for anyone doing legal research. "Completely updated with an edge and now with many new features, including annotated guides to best IP blog and news sites; IP sites for beginners; amusing IP sites; politically oriented IP sites; most useful websites for law students, and more!"
http://www.ali-aba.org/aliaba/glenbacal_2002.htm

Language Map

The MLA Language Map displays the locations and numbers of speakers of the thirty languages most commonly spoken in the United States.

Del.icio.us

Social bookmarking through del.icio.us is a concept that is getting much attention these days. The idea of saving bookmarks to a server on the web, so that they can be used from any web connected computer, is not new - Furl, for example, has been around since 2003. What makes social bookmarking different is that you can see what other people have been bookmarking, and let others see what you have been bookmarking. De.licio.us also allows you to annotate and provide subject tags for bookmarks, which is a potentially powerful feature; by subject tagging and sharing bookmarks in this fashion, communities of social bookmarkers will be generating new subject collections of blogs and websites.

I was curious to see how many hundreds of thousands, or at least thousands, of del.icio.us users had bookmarked ircworld. To do that, I registered with the service, bookmarked ircworld (my small but growing collection of del.icio.us bookmarks are at http://del.icio.us/osloirc and clicked on the "1 other person" (?!) who had bookmarked ircworld. I was then able click through to that individual's subject collection of bookmarks.

Another useful feature; when you find del.icio.us bookmark collections that look especially relevant to your interests, you can subscribe to the rss feed that is generated by each del.icio.us page, and thus be alerted to new additions.

In the past I've used bookmarks minimally, relying almost exclusively on search engines to find information. I find however that del.icio.us bookmarklets increase the convenience and utility of adding, organizing and using bookmarks, and the social aspect (along with the inclination every librarian has to build collections) makes it fun! You really need to try it to understand how it works and why it might be useful.

Debbie Weil's deliriously enthusiastic entry about Del.iciou.us at Blogwrite is admirably lucid and an good introduction. For an example of the trail an avid social bookmarker leaves behind, see Weil's collection of bookmarks at http://del.icio.us/wordbiz

Inevitably, there is similar service called de.lirio.us, but I haven't figured out what the difference is.

Peanut Butter Wiki

Wiki is a software technology that enables collaborative publishing/editing of documents on the web. The best known example is surely Wikipedia, but one could easily imagine other uses on a smaller scale ...f.ex. putting together a conference agenda, or creating some kind of online forum in which to interact with PD audiences. Peanut Butter wiki is a free webbased application that allows you to set up your own Wikis; to get a sense of how it works, see http://ircworldwiki.pbwiki.com You can get the userid/password by reading my posting about this on the eurirc listserv, or by sending me an email)
p.s. - please sign the guestbook!

WebJunction

Here is a web site I liked and wanted to share:

WebJunction is an online community of libraries and other agencies sharing knowledge and experience to provide the broadest public access to information technology.

http://www.webjunction.org/do/Home

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) a three-year grant to build a portal for public libraries and other organizations that provide open access to information. Building on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's five-year-old U.S. Library Program, which has provided over 40,000 computers with Internet access to more than 10,000 libraries across the United States and Canada, WebJunction is the work of five organizations, led by OCLC.

National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)

From the National Digital Newspaper Program website:

"The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of all U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH grant program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories."

print.google.com

The beta of the controversial (for copyright reasons) print.google.com is available at print.google.com

National Hazards Support System

The USGS Natural Hazards Support System (NHSS) at http://nhss.cr.usgs.gov/is a web tool that helps monitor, respond to and analyze hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, severe weather, floods, wildfires, and tsunamis.

Marcus Zillman's White Papers

Marcus Zillman's website www.whitepapers.us provides link collections and internet mini-guides on a great range of topics.

"Beyond Google" presentation

Since early 2004, Information Resource Officer Karen Hartman has delivered her “Beyond Google: What's New in Web Search, Weblogs and RSS Technology” over 12 times, to more than 600 librarians, teachers and legislative researchers in Southern Africa.

A text version (plus a link to a zipped copy of the .ppt file) of a recent update to her PowerPoint presentation, is now available at:
http://pretoria.usembassy.gov/wwwhit50.html

Journalist's Guide to the Federal Courts

A Journalist's Guide to the Federal Courts is intended to assist reporters assigned to court coverage. The section on the Federal district courts provides a walk-through of each stage of both a criminal and a civil case. It also describes the key players in the federal trial courts and identifies the types of court information a journalist might need, as well as possible sources for that information.

Feedburner

Feedburner is a service that provides free statistics on RSS feeds, including
feed circulation, which news aggregators people use to read your feed, and what feed items subscribers most often "clickthrough" to read on your site. There is aslo a "pro" option that provides greater detail for a fee. www.feedburner.com

Making of U.S. Foreign Policy

Another IRC Barcelona information product that may be of interest for educators and others is the infopack on "The Making of U.S. Foreign Policy"

Historical Timeline of U.S. Foreign Policy

IRC Barcelona has produced a handy "Historical Timeline of U.S. Foreign Policy"HistoryUSForeignPolicy.doc

Higher Education website

www.insidehighered.com appears to be a useful supplement to Chronicle of Higher Education. Read more about it at
http://www.insidehighered.com/about_us

Best named search engine?

Yahgoohoogle

Brookings report on World Public Opinion

Brookings Briefing
Who Will Lead the World? Shifting Alignments in World Public Opinion

(summary from Brookings website:)
"Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has emerged as the world's sole superpower, both in military and economic terms. A new poll however, suggests that not everyone around the world is happy with the United States' global influence, and would prefer a change in the balance of power. Publics around the world appear to be looking more to Europe and even China to play a more prominent role, while the influence of the United States and Russia are largely seen in a negative light. Such a potential realignment has significant implications for U.S. foreign policy. The poll, conducted by GlobeScan, together with the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, surveyed over 23,000 respondents in 23 countries around the world."

Two PD reports

GAO recently released: U.S. Public Diplomacy: Interagency Coordination Efforts Hampered by the Lack of a National Communication Strategy GAO-05-323, April 4, 2005
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05323.pdf

(from the abstract:)
"The war on terrorism has focused attention on the important role U.S. public diplomacy plays in improving the nation's image. The United States has undertaken efforts to "win hearts and minds" by better engaging, informing, and influencing foreign audiences; however, recent polling data show that anti-Americanism is spreading and deepening around the world. GAO was asked to examine (1) to what extent U.S. public diplomacy efforts have been coordinated and (2) whether the private sector has been significantly engaged in such efforts."

Another interesting report is the UK's Foreign Policy Centre's "British Public Diplomacy in the Age of Schisms"(February 2005). The report addresses many of the same issues and challenges that the U.S. faces in its public diplomacy efforts.

(from the introduction:)
"...Why is a new direction needed?
Authors Mark Leonard, Andrew Small and Counterpoint director, Martin Rose examine how Britain can forge a new public diplomacy role to suit an unstable, shifting, post-Iraq world, where divisions - or schisms - push nations into very different alliances. The lack of a significant debate about the role of public diplomacy post-Iraq, and the reliance on a Cold War-style public diplomacy suggests that a major rethink is needed. The authors argue that a new public diplomacy should be about mapping these schisms and bridging them, with a focus on trust and mutuality in the long-term, rather than about just delivering the message."

Presidents on Tape

An interesting site for anyone interested in the presidency (following excerpted from Scout Report, April 1, 2005)

WhiteHouseTapes.org [Macromedia Flash Player, pdf, Windows Media Player, QuickTime]
http://www.whitehousetapes.org/

"Since 1940, six American presidents have secretly recorded close to 5,000 hours of conversations, many of which have been of great interest to presidential historians, the press, and the general public. This remarkable site provides access to a wide range of those conversations, and is hosted and maintained by the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. From the site's homepage, visitors can browse a list of highlighted audio clips (complete with full transcripts) and also access educational resource materials for use in the classroom. The site also has some additional virtual exhibits on a number of topics, including Vietnam and the civil rights movement. Finally, the site also contains a search engine so that visitors can quickly locate the audio clip or conversation they are looking for

gov.clusty.com

Vivisimo's clustered search tool "clusty" has added a tab for searching government and related sources. (excerpt:) " Clusty's Gov tab brings together a number of special collections using Vivísimo Velocity. The Gov+ search is a powerful metasearch analogous to the Web+ tab, but focused on U.S. government and politics. It combines a metasearch of FirstGov, MSN limited to the ".gov" domain, DefenseLink, political news from Reuters, the Associated Press, and CNN, and a number of prominent American think tanks, including RAND, The Brookings Institution, The Cato Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and Milken Institute. "

Watching America

www.watchingamerica.com
the following is excerpted from the "about" information on the site.
"WatchingAmerica reflects global opinion about the United States, helping Americans and non-Americans alike understand what the world thinks of current issues that involve the U.S. This is done by providing news and views about the United States published in other countries.
It is not our purpose to find favorable or unfavorable news and commentary, but to reflect as accurately as possible how others perceive the richest and most powerful country in the world. We have absolutely no political agenda.
WatchingAmerica makes available in English articles written about the U.S. by foreigners, often for foreign audiences, and often in other languages. Since WatchingAmerica offers its own translations, regular users of our site will be able to enjoy articles that are not available in English anywhere else. We are a unique window into world opinion.
In addition, by integrating the latest translation technology into the site, visitors are able to surf all of the content of foreign-language news outlets at the push of a button - in English.
The site is updated frequently.
We hope that the insights gained through reading various perspectives on American issues will help to raise levels of debate, open minds, and promote understanding among all the peoples of the world.
If coverage of an issue, on a particular day, surprises or irritates you, please remember that we are simply reporting what is out there, and trying to show the fullest range of views from around the world. We do not endorse any of the content presented, or imply anything about the motivation behind, or accuracy of, the original sources. Sometimes, the content we present on a particular issue may appear one-sided . In such cases, rest assured that Watching America does not seek to influence opinion by selective presentation but that sometimes global copy is dominated by a particular perspective that may fall outside the spectrum of debate in the United States.
Watching America has no affiliation with, nor funding from, any organization or corporation. We intend to cover costs by running ads and receiving donations."

Gulf2000 Project

http://gulf2000.columbia.edu
This appears to be an authoritative source for information on the Persian Gulf region. (excerpt:)
"This site was developed by the Gulf/2000 Project at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University in New York City. It is designed to make available in a single location a wealth of information on the eight countries of the Persian Gulf region--Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. "

American Historical Assocation

American Historical Association [pdf]

http://www.historians.org/

(excerpted from Scout Report, March 11, 2005)

Incorporated by Congress in 1889, the American Historical Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research." Currently, the AHA has more than 14,000 history professionals at every type of educational institution, museum, historical organization, library, and archive. On the site, visitors can learn about various prizes and fellowships available from the AHA and also learn about its various publications. Those individuals interested in enrolling in a doctoral program in history will want to look at their profiles of various programs around the United States. Visitors will also want to look at the current and archived issues of the AHA's well-known monthly publication, Perspectives. The publication contains helpful articles that range from commentary on teaching to those on museum exhibitions. [KMG]

Russia Profile

(excerpted from the Scout Report, March 11, 2005)

Russia Profile

http://www.russiaprofile.org/index.wbp

The availability of high-quality news reporting on the Internet continues to improve, though at times finding reputable sources can still be difficult for certain parts of the world. Russia Profile is one such source, as it is produced by the Independent Media group, which is responsible for publishing The Moscow Times along with a number of other magazines across Russia. The goal of this website is to both broaden the scope of news coming out of Russia and "to provide a platform for an informed discussion of issues related to or concerning Russia". From the site's homepage, visitors can read about the latest from Russia Profile, view a calendar of events, and subscribe for free to the print edition of Russia Profile. Visitors can also participate in a number of online forum discussions. [KMG]

Not for conspiracy buffs!

The head of the U.S. Department of State's countermisinformation team has put together a webpage that addresses some of the misinformation about the U.S. that is circulated on the internet and elsewhere. The page also includes an email address to which questions or information regarding disinformation, misinformation, urban legends, conspiracy theories, or false rumors can be directed.

(excerpt from Washington File:) "Rumors, gossip, and conspiracy theories undermine trust and the advantages of the "Information Revolution." In an effort to correct malicious or simply misguided "information," the U.S. Department of State has created a new web collection, "Identifying Misinformation," http://usinfo.state.gov/media/media_resources/misinformation.html

"Identifying Misinformation" was developed over a number of years. It corrects false claims that the United States:

• had advance warning of the South Asian tsunami
• invented AIDS as a biological weapon
• is using chemical weapons in Iraq
• "created" Osama bin Laden.

The page is written by the State Department's countermisinformation expert. He has authored reports on this subject to the U.S. Congress and the United Nations, and has 12 years of experience debunking false stories. "

Amazing! Charming! Ingenious!

Perhaps I'm getting old and sentimental, but I found Jon Udell's Walking Tour of Keene, New Hampshire to be a bit of Americana of the most endearing kind. Quite apart from being an example of technology so impressive as to make you grin, it presents - and quite unintentionally, I think - those soft and soft- spoken values of American community that are not always effectively conveyed through our public diplomacy efforts! This would make a great "show-off" item at a librarian's conference or at any gathering of technologically interested contacts - a 5 minute international visitor program!

NYPL Digital Gallery

The New York Public Library unveiled on Wednesday a free, searchable database of 275,000 photographs and manuscripts from its collection.

"NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more."

Think Tanks

Here are some think-tank directories, courtesy of Resource Shelf
Hillwatch.com: Think Tanks ("A directory of Canadian and International Think Tanks")
KSG Directory of Think Tanks (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)
NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks (National Institute for Research Advancement in Japan. Hard copies of the directory are issued every three years. The 2002 edition is online here.) Political Resources: Think Tanks (Project VoteSmart)
Political Resources: Think Tanks (University of Michigan Documents Center)
Worldpress.org: Think Tanks and N.G.O.s

Women's History Month

Some quick facts from the Census Bureau for Women's History Month

The Idealist

www.idealist.org
This could be useful for people asking about volunteer & idealist work, projects, and activities in the U.S. and elsewhere. (abstract is excerpted from the Scout Report, vol.11, nr.8, 02/25/05)

"Administered by the nonprofit organization Action Without Borders, this site serves as a portal for anyone interested in a career with a nonprofit organization, volunteering, or internships in a related setting. The homepage is a good place to start, as it contains updates about upcoming nonprofit career fairs, news pieces related to social service and nonprofit groups, and some themed resources for volunteers, nonprofit managers, job seekers, and teachers. The site's homepage also contains a comprehensive search engine that is linked up to each and every database provided here. The Career Center section is a real find, as visitors may peruse sections dedicated to writing effective resumes, working abroad, and also look through a nonprofit job forum as well. Finally, visitors can also sign up for personal email updates and look at the site's contents in Spanish and French."

Project Syndicate

This appears to be an interesting site, with translations of seminal articles into Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Czech, French and Spanish!
http://www.project-syndicate.org/home/home.php4

(following info is excerpted from website)
"Project Syndicate is an international association of 229 newspapers in 107 countries, devoted to the following objectives:

• bringing distinguished voices from around the world to informed national audiences so as to create a global forum for broadening debate and exchanging ideas;
• strengthening the independence of newspapers in postcommunist and developing countries through a variety of training programs;
• fostering professional links among member papers.

the online books for American Corners resources

Dear IRC colleagues,

Please find the online books below, good for American Corners resources:
1. Encyclopedia of North American Indians
2. Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History
3. The Great American History Fact-Finder
4. The Reader's Companion to American History

IRC Jakarta, Indonesia

Tracing Former Military Personnel in the U.S.

(from Resource Shelf)
U.S. Military Personnel--Locator Services
Source: Embassy of the United States, London UK
Tracing Former Military Personnel In The U.S."It is difficult to trace someone in the United States when their whereabouts are completely unknown, as there are no central records of names and addresses available to the public. For those trying to locate former colleagues, friends or relations the following information may be of assistance. When writing to an agency or organization listed below, you should provide as much information as possible about the person you seek. At least the full name, date and place of birth should be given. For military personnel, the rank, serial number and branch of service should also be specified."

After The U.S. Election: A Survey Of Public Opinion In France, Germany and the United States

In the immediate aftermath of President Bush's re-election, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) conducted a survey of American, German, and French public opinion.The survey looks at how the presidential election impacted American and European attitudes toward each other and their leaders, perceptions of international organizations such as the UN and NATO, and possible areas of U.S.--European collaboration on issues like Israel--Palestine, Iran, and Iraq. Finally, it asks what leaders on both sides of the Atlantic should do to improve the transatlantic relationship.

Education Department's database of accredited educational institutions

The Education Department's Office of Postsecondary education has created an online database at http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation that will ease the identification of diploma mills and provide information about the accreditation of legitimate educational institutions.

"The database lists approximately 6,900 postsecondary educational institutions and programs, each of which is accredited by an accrediting agency or state approval agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a “reliable authority as to the quality of postsecondary education” within the meaning of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).The database does not include a number of postsecondary educational institutions and programs that elect not to seek accreditation but nevertheless may provide a quality postsecondary education"

Another rss to java service...

As a follow up to my posting December 7, 2004 about converting to RSS to javascript and the virtues of streaming feeds directly to a webpage, here's yet another service that does this: http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

(aha - per 02/09/2005 - here's yet another: http://www.rss2html.com/)

Also, here's an example of how you can stream the ircworld rssfeed (ircworld.blogspot.com/ircworld.xml)directly to your website.

New Public Diplomacy Report

The Public Diplomacy Council, a non-profit organization committed to the study, practice and advocacy of public diplomacy, released a report today entitled "A Call for Action on Public Diplomacy"

Following is the media alert released by the Council in connection with this report.

PROFESSIONALS CALL FOR TRANSFORMATION OF U. S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY


Members of the non-partisan Public Diplomacy Council, in a White Paper
released today, call on the administration and the Congress to undertake a
transformation of American public diplomacy to bring it into the 21st
century. The "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy" notes that U.S. public
diplomacy is in crisis. Reorganized and adequately funded public diplomacy
is vital to a successful foreign policy and the war on terrorism. The
report posits the need for a more robust global communication strategy and
puts forward five action recommendations.

The recommendations include: creation of a new agency within the State
Department to manage civilian international information and exchanges
functions; a 300 percent increase in overseas staffing for public diplomacy;
increases in funding and closer integration of international broadcasting;
the establishment of a cabinet level interagency committee to coordinate and
direct a national public diplomacy strategy; and a public-private sector
partnership to provide permanent funding for international exchanges.

The entire text of the "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy", with
commentaries on the paper, is available on the Council website at
www.pdi.gwu.edu <http://www.pdi.gwu.edu>.


The Public Diplomacy Council, founded in 1988, is a non-profit organization
committed to the academic study, professional practice and responsible
advocacy of public diplomacy. Its fifty members represent practitioners and
observers of public diplomacy past and present. The Council joined with
George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliot
School of International Affairs to establish the Public Diplomacy Institute
in 2001.

A Lawyer in Baghdad

IRCs with international law contacts may be interested in an article recently published in the Green Bag online law journal. Entitled 'A Lawyer in Baghdad,' it is an account of the work of a Washington lawyer who worked for the General Counsel to the Coalition Provisional Authority.
His conclusion? "In sum, to those who say international law does not exist, or who say the occupation of Iraq was somehow extra-legal, I invite them to scrutinize the legal work of my former office, where international law was lived, breathed, and debated, with realworld consequences, twenty-four hours a day."
The eight-page article, originally discovered at the Instapundit web site, can be accessed at:
http://www.greenbag.org/McGurk.pdf

# Posted by Tel Aviv IRC http://194.90.114.5/publish/resource.htm

Best Free Reference Web Sites 2004

This is an annual series initiated under the auspices of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web - see 2004 list at http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBestRef2004.htm

What is RSS?

Zeki Celikbas of Istanbul Technical University provides a clear and concise introduction to RSS in "What is RSS and how can it serve libraries?"

USC Center for Public Diplomacy

The University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy is a useful site for information about public diplomacy, including (in the "library" section) links to government hearings, reports, public opinion surveys, and think tanks and organizations that deal with public diplomacy.

Converting RSS to Javascript

RSS Digest (see September 25 posting) is one of several tools that will create javascript out of an rss feed so that you can direct the feed to any html page. Two similar tools that deserve mention are rss-to-javascript and Feed2JS. Directing an RSS feed to a webpage - as has been done with the feeds on the left side of this page - makes good sense when you'd like users to be able to read newsfeeds without downloading/installing/using an rss aggregator/reader like Amphetadesk orFeedReader. In our environment, where many users are neither inclined nor permitted to download/try out new software, this is particularly useful. Using an RSS to Javascript converter, you can easily direct any RSS feed to your website, intranet, or even to an html page on the shared section of your LAN.

Center for Immigration Studies

(from Scout Report Volume 10, Number 48)
December 3, 2004Center for Immigration Studies [pdf]
http://www.cis.org/
Founded in 1985, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization which happens to be the United States' only think tank devoted "exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States." From the homepage, visitors can peruse a number of common topics in immigration, such as immigration history, statistics on immigrants, and citizenship. The site's homepage also contains links to current news articles addressing various aspects of immigration, and also contains a feature titled "This Day in Immigration", which highlights various important dates in immigration history and policy. Perhaps the most helpful section of the site is the "What's New" area of the site, which highlights various new policy briefs and papers released by the CIS.

Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication

An interesting report with links to a number of Public Diplomacy studies:


This report is a product of the Defense Science Board (DSB). The DSB is a Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of Defense. Statements, opinions, conclusions, and recommendations in this report do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of Defense.


The current Strategic Communication Task Force re-examined the purposes of strategic communication and the salience of recommendations in the earlier study. It then considered the following questions:

(1) What are the consequences of changes in the strategic communication environment?
(2) What Presidential direction and strategic communication means are required?
(3) What should be done about public diplomacy and open military information operations?

The Task Force met with representatives from the National Security Council (NSC), White House Office of Global Communications, Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), and the private sector.

http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf

ADSURLS 17, FY 2005

Afghanistan: From Presidential to Parliamentary Elections. [Asia Report No. 88] November 23, 2004. Executive Summary:http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?id=3127&l=1 [Dari version, html format, 5 printed pages]Item# 05AD156 MPP Theme: 12EL
Geo: Asia

Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004. November 2004.http://www.unodc.org/pdf/afg/afghanistan_opium_survey_2004.pdf [pdf format, 125 pages]Item# 05AD163 MPP Theme: 09 Geo: Asia

Braille Literacy: Resources for Instruction, Writing Equipment, and Supplies. Web-posted November 23, 2004.http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/circulars/brailleliteracy.html [html format, 42 printed pages]Item# 05AD157 MPP Theme: 12ED Geo: Global

A Description of the Immigrant Population. November 23, 2004.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6019/11-23-Immigrant.pdf [pdf format, 37 pages]Item# 05AD158 MPP Theme: 8A Geo: USA

Disability and Retirement: The Early Exit of Baby Boomers from the Labor Force. November 22, 2004.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6018/11-22-LaborForce.pdf [pdf format, 28 pages]Item# 05AD159 MPP Theme: 5I Geo: USA

European Competitiveness Report 2004. Web-posted November 25, 2004.http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness/doc/comprep_2004_en.pdf [pdf format, 359 pages]Item# 05AD155 MPP Theme: 4B Geo: Europe

How the Drug War in Afghanistan Undermines America's War on Terror. November 10, 2004.http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb84.pdf [pdf format, 8 pages]Item# 05AD161 MPP Theme: 9C; 11 Geo: Asia

International Trade in GMOs [Genetically Modified Organisms]: Legal Frameworks and Developing Country Concerns. November 8, 2004.http://www.unctad.org/en/docs//ditctncd20041_en.pdf [pdf format, 19 pages]Item# 05AD162 MPP Theme: 5O Geo: LDCs

Resuscitating the Bioweapons Ban: U.S. Industry Experts' Plans for Treaty Monitoring. November 2004.http://www.csis.org/isp/041117_Bioweapons.pdf [pdf format, 114 pages]Item# 05AD164 MPP Theme: 2A; 1I Geo: Global

Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004. Web-posted November 19, 2004.http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005016.pdf [pdf format, 116 pages]Item# 05AD160 MPP Theme: 12ED; 12DIG Geo: USA

Thomas gets a facelift

Thomas will have a new and improved look before the 109th Congress convenes on Jan.5 - for a preview see http://thomas.loc.gov/home/redesign/

NeighborSearch

Here's a useful tool, and and example of the generous spirit of the internet! For a while I'd been looking - unsuccessfully - for a tool that would limit Google searches to the sites that a given page (e.g. a subject portal) links to. I mentioned this to Philipp Lenssen, who is the creator of findforward.com, feeeds.com and the Google Blogoscoped blog. Within 24 hours he came up with the desired tool, and it's called NeighborSearch! Many thanks,Philipp!!

Century Foundation Report: "Defeating the Jihadists"

(excerpted from Century Foundation website:

Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action

Various Authors
Century Foundation Press, 11/16/04

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The international jihadist network of radical Islamic terrorist groups is far more extensive than just al Qaeda, and it has conducted twice as many attacks in the three years since September 11, 2001 as it did in the three years prior to that date. Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action (Century Foundation Press, 2004), assesses the nation's successes and failures on homeland security and calls for a stronger, more effective strategy for dealing with jihadists, including al Qaeda. The report offers a detailed action plan for neutralizing the international movement at the core of worldwide terrorism. The report also describes the nature of the jihadist threat; provides comprehensive profiles of the various jihadist groups; and offers a rationale for the effort and money that would be needed to make the plan a success. The plan presented in the report builds on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and serves as a road map for winning the war against the jihadists.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar appears to be a very interesting new resource - I was looking for perspectives on the effectiveness of the USIA-State consolidation for public diplomacy ("usia and public diplomacy") and found many things that I would have missed with a plain Google search. Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price have written a thorough review of Google Scholar at ResourceShelf, see http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/11/wow-its-google-scholar.html

Public Diplomacy reports 2001-2004

One of the appendices to "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication" (http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf) includes a useful list of central PD reports issued 2001-2004

Appendix E: Government and Independent Organization Studies of
Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy, September 2001 –
September 2004

Building Public Diplomacy Through a Reformed Structure and Additional Resources, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2002.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/13622.pdf

Changing Minds, Winning Peace: A New Strategic Direction for U.S. Public
Diplomacy in the Arab & Muslim World, Report of the Advisory Group on Public
Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, Submitted to the Committee on
Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, October 1, 2003.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/24882.pdf

Finding America’s Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy, Report of an Independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, September 2003.
http://www.cfr.org/pdf/public_diplomacy.pdf

How to Reinvigorate U.S. Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, April 2003.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/bg1645.cfm

Managed Information Dissemination, Report of a Defense Science Board Task Force sponsored by the Department of Defense and Department of State, September 2001.
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/

Public Diplomacy: A Strategy for Reform, Report of an Independent Task Force
sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, July 2002.
http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=4754.xml

Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century, Report submitted by the Public Diplomacy
Institute and Public Diplomacy Council in response to requests from staffs of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, and Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, May 31, 2002.
http://pdi.gwu.edu/

Reclaiming America’s Voice Overseas, The Heritage Foundation, May 2003.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/wm273.cfm
The Need to Communicate: How to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World, The Brookings Institution, Analysis Paper #6, January 2004.
http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/analysis/amr20040101.htm

The New Diplomacy: Utilizing Innovative Communication Concepts that RecognizeResource Constraints, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2003.
http://www.state.gov/r/adcompd/rls/22818.htm

Strengthening U.S.-Muslim Communications, Report of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, July 2003.
http://www.thepresidency.org/pubs/US-MuslimCommunications.pdf

The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy, Report of the Eleventh Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, 2003.
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/AspenInstitute/files/CCLIBRARYFILES/FILENAME/000
0000077/netpolitik.pdf

U.S. International Broadcasting: Enhanced Measure of Local Media Conditions Would Facilitate Decisions to Terminate Language Services. Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, February 2004.
http://www.gao.gao/cgi-bin/getrpt?GA0-04-374

U.S. International Broadcasting: New Strategic Approach Focuses on Reaching Large Audiences but Lacks Measurable Program Objectives, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, July 2003
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03772.pdf

U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Efforts in the Middle East but Face Significant Challenges, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the Subcommittee on National Security,Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, February 10, 2004.
http://www.gao.gov/cgl-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-435T

U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Expands Efforts But Faces Significant Challenges, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2003. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03951.pdf

U.S. International Broadcasting: Challenges Facing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the
Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, Committee on Foreign
Relations, U.S. Senate, April 29, 2004.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04627t.pdf

Fagan Finder

Fagan Finder (www.faganfinder.com) provides many useful tools, including a Speed Browse feature (http://www.faganfinder.com/misc/browse.html) that allows you to queue up websites for accelerated browsing (nice for presentations!), a URL info tool http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/ that provides many kinds of kind of information about a website, and bookmarklets, which have many different uses. Well worth a look!